Alvaro Noboa does not rule out a fifth presidential bid



August 17th, 2011 | El Comercio Newspaper

Guayaquil Newsroom

15:01 Tuesday afternoon at the Luis Noboa Naranjo Museum in downtown Guayaquil seemed like the launch of an electoral candidate. Businessman and politician Alvaro Noboa invited the media to a press conference.  Also invited were special guests, friends, politicians and businessmen.

Are you launching your presidential bid? 
I am offering to Ecuador and the world the important foundations that have served as the pillars of my training and which should be the pillars of civilization.

It’s been a long time since your last public appearance, what is your intention? 
Raise our civilization to the highest levels and raise Ecuador to where there are no attacks against freedom, human rights, nature; to where there is no class struggle; to where there is a single bond between the Government, production and labor; to help the country move forward, a country that unfortunately has had more than 100 years of bad politicians and management.

Do you believe that Ecuadorians are not living by the creed you propose? 
In Ecuador there has been a deterioration of values.  There is corruption, delinquency, a total breakdown of civil liberties; there is no separation of powers. We are in political, economic and social crisis.

Are freedoms in Ecuador at risk? 
For many years now, freedoms have been at risk, and today the situation is even more acute.

Will you be presidential candidate or not? 
I never know.  In many, many ways, the people have supported me with more than 50% of the vote. In 1998, I won the election and they took it from me; I won the first round in 2005, unfortunately at that time the press was a little blind and thought that others could change Ecuador.

But you have already lost twice to Correa; will you run a third election against him? 
I beat Rafael in the first round.

But he won the second round.
So they say, no? You counted the votes? Hahaha

But it was proclaimed President of Ecuador by the electoral body. 
Indeed, he is the head of state and I know what he is, therefore he should be the first Ecuadorian to consider how best to help Ecuador become like Alvaro Noboa’s creed.

Do you think there is no separation among the government branches? 
It is clear that the Presidency belongs to Alianza Pais; the National Assembly has an Alianza Pais majority; there is a lot of fear in the courts for what we are experiencing; and that is the Ecuadorian perception.

You still have tax cases pending with the IRS.  When will these be resolved?
They are not against Alvaro Noboa, I am one of the largest taxpayers, I’m in the white list.  The rest you can call it however you want.

But the processes against the banana company remain pending. 
We have explained to the country that it is not possible that the five largest exporters of the country have an estimated value of $1 million and that the state believes Bananera Noboa has earned more than 200 million dollars. You draw your own conclusion, I don’t want to come to any conclusion because then I get slapped with another suit, like they’ve done to your colleague. (Noboa is referring to the trial against former El Universo editor, Emilio Palacio.)